Our time is running through
Oh baby, I don’t mind
Plants, tiger, you and I,
And I don’t wanna lie
Berlin’s Nastia Reigel, operating under the floral guise of Rosa Damask, etches fresh wounds onto the skin of modern post-punk with her latest LP Adore You. Guitars simmer and spark over a snarling bass that idles and mumurs like a restless engine, bolted tight by rhythms precise as machinery. Against this rigid framework, Reigel’s voice emerges like secret whispers lifted from a locked diary: smoke-hued murmurs, sly provocations, sudden confessions that shatter like glass hurled against walls. These words, she admits, were never intended to escape her private world; now they glint raw and exposed at centre stage.
Musically, Rosa Damask oscillates between nimble post-punk urgency and darker, bass-heavy textures, echoing early Cure fused with PJ Harvey’s razor-edged intimacy and the chrome-plated gloom of late-’90s Depeche Mode. Yet the album escapes mere reverence, pulling influences into distorted new forms. This is music poised between seduction and confrontation, designed to bruise club walls and linger long into the stark morning after.
“This record holds all my vulnerability, love, sadness, and the hardest feelings I’ve faced this year,” Reigel confesses. “Creating it was the only way I could release these overwhelming emotions and heal. These songs are honest and raw—it’s just me. Some became prophetic; feelings I couldn’t quite understand when writing them made sense only months later as events unfolded. It’s surreal. I cried and found calm many times during the recordings.”
On “The Sun,” lies from a lover scorch like relentless sunlight, magnifying pain and obsession. Despite seeing through the deceit, there’s a desperate yearning for presence, a plea against abandonment, a toxic cycle both painful and impossible to escape. “Adore You” captures emotional exhaustion, a dance between desire and distance. It admits nothing more can be given yet clings to intimacy drenched in unease. Boundaries are finally drawn even as attachment remains stubbornly intact.
“Hallway Polly Waterfall” evokes fleeting, intense passion, celebrating touch, scent, and ephemeral closeness. Imagery spirals playfully around exotic creatures and surreal worlds, though beneath this lush surface lurks a cryptic warning of hidden damage, adding a taut undertone to moments slipping inevitably away. Meanwhile, “Psycho, Leave Me Alone” details a decaying connection. Birds fleeing hint at imminent endings, memories and broken promises haunt familiar spaces. A desperate insistence on solitude emerges against the shadow of obsessive attempts to reclaim what has vanished.
Accompanying the release, Rosa Damask unveils a starkly beautiful performance video featuring four tracks: “Adore You,” “Hallway Polly Waterfall,” “Psycho, Leave Me Alone,” and “The Sun.” Shot through with cold blue light slicing an empty room, Reigel, statuesque and striking in a sharp black suit and white collared shirt, stands poised alongside bassist Masha Raeva. Minimalist notes cut deeply, melodies skeletal rather than soothing. The songs are stark, evoking The Cure at their most minimalist during the Seventeen Seconds era, with vocals reminiscent of an alt-rock icon of the early 90s.
When “Hallway Polly Waterfall” shifts the mood midway, guitars deepen their growl and electronic pulses recall late-’90s Curve at their most distilled. The camera circles, lights flare, and the duo settles into a tense, magnetic rhythm that feels perpetually on the brink of collapse. This is music as controlled tension, romanticism pressed sharply against distortion, demanding closer scrutiny as temperatures plunge.
Watch Rosa Damask at Morphine Raum below:
Listen to Adore You below and order the album here.
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